1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a pairing method and an apparatus for an ad-hoc connection in a wireless communication terminal, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for easily performing pairing for an ad-hoc connection between wireless communication terminals that use short distance wireless communication technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
As electronic and communication technologies develop, and large capacity multimedia data processing capabilities of electronic apparatuses improves, user requirements for the electronic apparatuses increase. For example, user requirements for multimedia data exchange between the electronic apparatuses have increased over time.
Accordingly, network technology enabling multimedia data exchange between electronic apparatuses, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee, so-called Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), have been provided. That is, the WPAN technologies enable ad-hoc connection between apparatuses under an environment where a communication infrastructure is not established.
However, WiFi and Bluetooth technologies are inconvenient in that they have to search for a counterpart terminal, show search results as a list, and allow a user to directly determine one terminal, for ad-hoc connection. In addition, in case of the WiFi, terminals participating in ad-hoc connection must be set to the same Service Set IDentifier (SSID), the same encryption algorithm, and the same passphrase. In case of the Bluetooth, a name of a counterpart terminal participating in ad-hoc connection, and a PIN number must be known. For this reason, people generally find that the ad-hoc connection is difficult. That is, for the ad-hoc connection, the people need to recognize and understand terminologies such as an SSID, a WEB key, an encryption algorithm, a Bluetooth Device (BD) Address, a device name, etc.
Conventionally, a method for facilitating connection settings by inputting the same value at both terminals that are to perform an ad-hoc connection, and generating a key value suitable for WiFi or Bluetooth has been provided. However, the above method is inconvenient in that it requires a user to have to input the same number in person, and the method cannot be used in a terminal having no numerical keypad.
Accordingly, method for performing an ad-hoc connection after sharing necessary information in advance between terminals via a Near Field Communication (NFC) channel when performing pairing using an Out-Of-Band (OOB), such as the NFC, has been provided. The price of such a terminal may be raised.